Friday, 16 March 2012

Guess who found a free comic-making app on his laptop?! So this month, as well as giving us all a beezer of a free track, five of the country's most talented bands have contributed to what may well be the last ever Kowalskiy comic strip. I think it's rather dandy! OK, so who do we have on this month's EP? Well...

"Solsbury Hill is probably one of my favorite songs. I remember loving it even before knowing who was responsible for it. From the back of my dads car in them good old days when I was still small enough to be carried to bed after falling asleep on a long car journey. I recorded this cover of it a while ago intending to be part of a thing we were doing on the Mitchell Museum website called " Raindeer's Covers Corner" . It was supposed to have a video to accompany it. We went as far as the filming process, which had me running up Garnet Hill just off Sauchiehall Street for roughly an hour and a half. It was very tiring work. In the end Kris, my then flatmate and MM band buddy wasn't able to get the edit to work, so it was scrapped. So in retaliation I broke his acoustic guitar. True story. At least now it will be heard." - Raindeer (Behold, the Old Bear)

2. Blue Sky Archives - Cosplay The Hard Way(Been itching to get this lot involved for a while. Here's a track from their current, and brilliant, EP.)

"The first release from Blue Sky Archives third (and latest) EP, 'Triple A-Side'; Cosplay The Hard Way explores the sexual politics of a failing relationship, within a lush tapestry of interweaving melodies. Soft guitars, rich piano and sinister strings subtly punctuate a gradual rhythmic build toward a powerful emotive crescendo. Cosplay The Hard Way, and the band's Triple A-Side EP is available for download from The Blue Sky Archives Band Camp page... http://blueskyarchives.bandcamp.com/" - Paul Mark McGrath (Blue Sky Archives)

3. This Silent Forest - Lovers Come Home (Here's one of their upcoming EP tracks which came out of their A Song A Day (for 30 Days) challenge last year. Can't wait for the EP to hear what else made the cut!)

"Enjoy our track "Lovers Come Home" which was part of our Song A Day Challenge last year and is meant to be about World War 1. We liked it so much we put that and three others on a EP, which is due to be released soon along with our new single Milk and another EP called "The Lighter Side". We will also be releasing videos soon for all tracks, eight in total. To coincide with these tracks we are on Tour (used very lightly) around Scotland with our headline show in The Captains Rest on the 24th March." - Graeme "Squirrel" Macdonald (This Silent Forest)

4. The Sea Kings - The Nitrate In My Blood (acoustic)(Can't stop listening to their Some Dark Matters EP! Here's an acoustic, folky take on one of the tracks.)

"I think each of us at one time or another were in some kind of alt-country band so it was always in our nature to revert back to something a bit more folky. The songs are all written on acoustic guitar and so tend to hark from that world to begin with anyway. We're always keen to figure out as many versions of the songs as possible and love playing acoustic gigs. For some reason they're less pressure. So here's an alternate version of The Nitrate In My Blood from our debut EP Some Dark Matters." - Brian Canning (The Sea Kings)

5. The Spook School - That's When I Ran Away (demo) (Their two double A-sides so far have been fairly outstanding, so I'm chuffed to bits to have a brand-spanking new demo for your listening pleasure!)

"Here's another song we've recorded in Adam's bedroom. We'll get back into a studio at some point. Until then you've got this. It's about FEAR - hope it doesn't scare you!" - Naomi Todd (The Spook School)

A huge thank you to all five bands and one band manager (you know who you are big guy!) for contributing this month. You can, as ever, get the EP over on my Bandcamp page where you'll also find the previous twenty if you're fancying a new music splurge this weekend. Hope you enjoy it!

I'm looking to build up a wee stockpile of tracks for future EPs. So if you've got something hidden away on an old hard drive which needs a good home, or an upcoming release you're wanting to plug, maybe you want to go and record a wee acoustic version especially for me (don't say "no" now, mull it over!), then send me an email (kowalskiy2@gmail.com) and we'll go from there.